The plastic five-gallon bucket, while initially intended as packaging for building materials, food, and the like from a manufacturer or distributer, have become a very popular and utilitarian tool for many people. In many cases the buckets cannot be reused for their initial purpose, especially when used for food packaging, and therefore have historically been thrown away and sent to the landfill leading to thousands of buckets a day discarded. Thus, in this age of growing environmental awareness the five gallon bucket continues to find common and imaginative alternative uses and has become known as the ultimate recyclable.
One (1) extremely common and popular alternative use of the bucket is as a makeshift tool carrier, especially among professional laborers and domestic do-it-yourselfers. Tool buckets make inexpensive containers for transporting tools and materials to and from a job site and around the work area. The bucket also provides the benefit of providing a durable container that will not rust or corrode and is easily carried from job task to job task and of catching smaller materials which may be dropped during work. Many laborers use a number of various tools and materials every day and it is desirous to have those tools organized and readily accessible, especially when both hands are unavailable while in the midst of performing a task. One (1) solution has been to simply carry all the tools in the bucket, haphazardly piling them inside with no organization. Another has been to carry multiple tool boxes, bags, or material containers which can be cumbersome and inconvenient. Various accessories for the bucket used as a tool carrier have attempted to solve these disadvantages, ranging from textile inserts, to covers, seat assemblies and the like. One (1) disadvantage they pose however is that the tools typically end up in a tangled mess in the middle of the container or hang loosely from the sides. The tools often fall over on top of each other, thereby forcing the user to remove all tools to find the desired one (1) on the bottom. The canvas tool holders force the user to pull open and peer inside of each pocket, all of which takes time and caused aggravation while performing a task.
Various attempts have been made in the past to overcome these disadvantages and provide a means of stowing and organizing hand tools while transporting the tools in a bucket, although the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so provides a means by which various commonly used tools can be carried and organized within a tool bucket without the aforementioned problems. Among the relevant attempts to address these problems are several U.S. Patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,765,472; 4,826,007; 4,867,332; 4,925,026; 5,261,556; and 5,924,568.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,243, issued in the name of Deyesso et al., describes a tool holder insert adapted to engage the inner surface of the wall of a plastic bucket comprising an annular configurations and apertures and notches for holding tools.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,295, issued in the name of Venegoni, describes a bucket organizer tray comprising a plurality of trays along a circular bottom wall which is joined to an annular peripheral sidewall which removably fits inside a plastic bucket for sorting various parts or tools.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,551, described in the name of Linsday, describes a tool holder and storage device which interfits over the upper rim of a plastic bucket comprising a tubular cloth panel which drapes of the inside and outside surface of the bucket and outer pockets sewn on the outside draping surface for holding various tools.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,065, issued in the name of Darrey, describes a tool and hardware carrier for a bucket comprising an insert with a circular planer top member positioned near the top of the bucker and a plurality of apertures and slots to receive tools.
Additionally, ornamental designs for bucket caddies and tool organizers exist, particularly, U.S. patent No. D 372,125. However, none of these designs are similar to the present device.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffers from one or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Accordingly, the need has developed for a means by a user can easily find and retrieve hand tools stored and transported in a five-gallon bucket. The development of the present invention fulfills this need.